Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus has said Hutchins should serve his whole sentence instead of gaining clemency.

Earlier this month, the commanding general of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Pendleton, Joseph Dunford, Jr., who has since been nominated to become the next assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, argued against Hutchins’ release pending appeal. Hutchins was the “ring leader” of the plot, Dunford wrote. After being convicted of murder and conspiracy by a jury of fellow Marines, “his conviction was subsequently overturned because of the conduct of one of his attorneys, not because of a lack of evidence of guilt.”

Hutchins and the other Hamdaniya defendants have found supporters since 2006.

“There is a whole lot more to this case than the original 30-second media spin that seven Marines and one corpsman dragged an innocent man out of his house and shot him because they were pissed off,” said Capt. Babu Kaza, Hutchins’ military defense attorney. “This case was the product of a failed presurge war strategy and failures by the Marine Corps chain of command.”

Hutchins’ parents, Larry and Kathi Hutchins, cashed out the 401k retirement savings plan that Larry Hutchins had built up during 32 years of work with a phone company. They refinanced their house twice and nearly went into bankruptcy.

“Anybody would do that for their children,” Larry Hutchins, 61, said Tuesday.

Hutchins kept a brave face on whenever his parents visited him at the prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kan. He received at least one letter of support during each day of his confinement — from retired Marines and the woman who cleans and cares for the veterans’ memorial in the nation’s Capitol.

The incarceration was agonizing, by his account. Hutchins said he was assaulted by another inmate and that he was thrown into “the hole” of solitary confinement for a disciplinary infraction.

Hutchins’ father, uncle and grandfather were all Marines. His teachers in high school told him he was smart enough to be a doctor or lawyer. His father hoped Hutchins would go to college.

Looking back on his son’s service, Larry Hutchins said: “I can only imagine what it’s like when your life is on the line every day, and your hands are tied. When there are no rules over there with the people you’re fighting, you can’t be second-guessing. War is war. If you’re going to be sent over to war to fight, you should be able to fight.

“Now I wish he had never went in,” he added.

The Hutchins family hopes the legal ordeal will soon be behind them. The high court of appeals is expected to rule on the case sometime next year. If freed, Hutchins said he might remain in uniform or go home to Massachusetts to work. Either way, he plans to repay his parents and be the best father possible, he said.

Hutchins took leave after being released from prison. One of his first tasks was to buy a new uniform and have “Hutchins” stitched into the fabric. When he brought it back to the barracks, his sergeant major warned him to shut the door in case he teared up, conduct definitely unbefitting a sergeant, he said.

But in the privacy of his Camp Pendleton barracks, Hutchins couldn’t help but smile. “It felt good,” he said. He snapped a picture with his cell phone.

Someday, when his 5-year-old daughter grows up and is mature enough to demand an accounting, he will tell her what happened.

“I just want her to have all the facts. Right now she thinks I am a hero. When she is old enough to understand, I think she will be my sternest judge,” Hutchins said.